scott, in brief

The question which has stayed with me from Johnny Bakers talk at the National Gathering is quite key it think.

"can new types of church come from the established church"

this question has two roots. first the histry of church change is littered with new denominations being formed as a reaction to and from something else. new expressions of church seem to be primarily reactions against established church or another church. Martin Luther didn't set out to divide the catholic church. (or form catholics and prodestants) The Salvation Army's early development was financed by backers who supported William Booth, after having an arguement with the methodists over wether to have an organ in church or not.

secondly this article at adbusters speaks of the way the art work deals with the new and the powerful types of art by adopting and absorbing them to the point where the lose their power and ability to be different.

It’s a cycle that has become all too familiar. Anything subversive, anything meant to disrupt the status quo and challenge traditional models of thought and behavior is eventually adopted into the mainstream it is swimming against. Once caught in the currents of convention, it becomes powerless. Just another commodity to be traded in the system.

The Church of Scotland has reportedly started a 1.5million pound fund to invest and allow for new types of ministry and mission I wonder if this money would be better spent challenging artists, anarchists, creative people, homeless, and heretics to react to the church and see where that could take us. (perhaps a kind of Dragons den spin off.)

but that wouldn't be very presbyterian would it?

technorati tags - church of scotland, church without walls, national gathering, adbusters & Johnny Baker

The Good
- meeting up with people i hadn't seen for ages. It was nice to see so many people
- morning worship with John Bell and Archbishop John Sentamu
- Catching the end of Johnny Bakers Talk - Grace for a Mosaic Generation
- Hearing Alistair McGrath (only slightly disappointed that he was wearing a cord jacket rather than the assumed oxford uniform of a tweed one.)
- catching myself talking about how and who could change church, only to think do i really think this and answer, yes i do.
- parking the lack of a traffic jam there and back.
- agreeing to write a letter to someone i think is great
- getting recognised from my bebo picture. (yeah really)
- having the planes take off in the background as Edinburgh airport was right next door. not much noise but a cool view.

The Bad
- Food provision - come on guys, could try harder i think
- the art exhibition - not extensive or varied
- taking your shoes off in the prayer tent. - understandable but I hade large 18 eyelit boots and didn't want to spend too long there. Hmmmm. my fault but still bad.
- the sunday afternoon outdoor love, worship, feast, stuff. no really it was attrotious to be honest. kinda had a bad family service feel to it. not impressed.

The needing attention
stage 2 - what was that all about. putting a spoken word stage next to the come and try an organ stand?

youth zone - needs alot of work. a bad use of space and had no flow or rythmn to it.

site layout - the tents were a good idea but the layout of the site meant they were external to the main walk ways to the other venues rather than intergral to the natural flow of foot traffic.

Morning worship was good but evening worship provided less incentive to stay. I did want to see Johnny Baker but in a double header with stuart Townhead I decided to give it a miss

Under 5's provision - none, where was the creche or creche space. (Kids zone being for p1-p7's) The main baby change facility in the main hall was terrible and only in the female toilets. C'mon we can do better than that surely.

Tents - The idea was great but to many were similar and not enticing to stop at. very little interactivity for those walking by.

Tents - Some bizzarre opening and closing times from Tent holders.

in conculsion, overall it felt good, but with some big room for inprovements

technorati tags - church of scotland, church without walls & national gathering

we spent last weekend at the Church of Scotland Church Without Walls National Gathering

further posts to follow but in general had a decent time
we got to see people we hadn't seen for a while. One old friend we saw greeted us with the statement

"hi there, this is just like heaven isn't it. Everyone you have every known in one space at one time."

I put this to a minister friend of mine, his response was

"Heaven, Hell, at the moment it's kinda similar!"

anyway it was strange seeing people you haven't seen for years or people who know you but couldn't remember who you are. What was really strange was how many people I know without being "church of scotland" yeah I have dabbled but never joined so it was quite weird.

anyway I think it achieved what it was trying to do. It got me thinking about church, carberry, mission, youthwork and how to do big events. Like I don't get enough of that at work. Anyway I will put some more thoughts up soon.

technorati tags - church of scotland, church without walls & national gathering